heat

DCA has already gotten to 102 twice today… shattering the daily record of 99 set back in 1993. One more degree would make it DCA’s hottest day of 2011, with three 102 highs already on the board.

IAD is up to 101, breaking its daily record of 97 (also set in 1993) and BWI is at 100, beating the old record high of 99 that was set back in 1954.

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Further north, severe weather is the main concern of the day. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch is up for the eastern two-thirds of PA, most of NJ and southern NY. Wind damage will be the main threat, with an isolated tornado or two also possible.

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UPDATE:

DC region official highs: DCA 104, IAD 103, BWI 101.

Also, multiple tornado warnings have been issued with two cells… one in NE PA near the PA/NY border and one in SE NY heading towards NYC and Long Island.

DCA is sitting at +4.0 through the first 12 days of July, with all but two of those days with highs of 91-97. Today was another warm day as temperatures climbed to about 93 before the storms hit.

Tomorrow through Sunday looks to be more seasonal to even slightly below normal, with highs in the mid to upper 80s. While not necessarily cool, it’s certainly a nice period of relief, especially considering what lies ahead.

Another warm up is on the way during the second half of next week, when highs could climb into the 95-105 range (according to the latest model runs and trends). Whether these hot temperatures will verify or not remains speculative since it is still in the medium range, but all of the medium-range signals point to hot, hot, hot weather next week.